N.Y. Post's Allan to face harassment charges

10/29/13 1:18 PM EDT

New York Post editor-in-chief Col Allan will be forced to appear in court to face allegations of harassment, "unlawful employment practices" and wrongful termination, following a district court decision on Tuesday.

The lawsuit, which was filed four years ago by Sandra Guzman, a former editor who claims she was fired for protesting a controversial political cartoon, charged Allan, the Post, and News Corp, the paper's parent company. On Tuesday, the district court accepted News Corp's motion for dismissal while denying similar motions by Allan and the Post.

In her lawsuit, Guzman characterizes the Post culture as racist and misogynistic, "a hostile work environment where female employees and employees of color have been subjected to pervasive and systemic discrimination and/or unlawful harassment based on their gender, race, color and/or national origin."

Among other charges, Guzman alleged that high-ranking Post staffers had created a hostile work environment for minorities. She accused Allan of having "rubbed his penis up against" a female colleague "and made sexually suggestive comments about her body, including her breasts, causing that female employee to feel extremely uncomfortable and fearing to be alone with him."

Another female colleague was "sexually propositioned" by a white male editor who told her, "If you give me a blow job, I will give you a permanent reporter job," Guzman's lawsuit claims.

Guzman was fired from the Post in 2009 after publicly criticizing an editorial cartoon which depicted the author of President Obama's stimulus package as a dead chimpanzee. Guzman called the cartoon racist, and claimed she was fired for her remarks. In the lawsuit, Guzman alleges that the paper's D.C. bureau chief had stated that the Post's goal was to "destroy Barack Obama."

News Corp spokesperson Ashley Huston and New York Post spokesperson Suzanne Halpin did not respond to requests for comment. The news was first reported by The Huffington Post.

UPDATE (2:45 p.m.): Rubenstein's Jenny Tartikoff sends the following statement on behalf of the New York Post:

We are pleased that the claims against News Corp were thrown out. We look forward to presenting the truth about the remaining charges -- which are completely unfounded -- to a jury.